The newspapers continued the excitement.

They published repeated rumors.

New clues were constantly being announced.
But all this was mere idle talk.

Telegrams reached the police bureau from every part of America, each contradicting and nullifying the others.

The enormous rewards offered could not help but lead to accusations, errors, and blunders, made, many of them, in good faith.
One time it would be a cloud of dust, which must have contained the automobile.